I’ve been diagnosed with a food allergy, now what?

In most cases an adult with a food allergy will receive diagnosis and be told to exclude the allergen and continue with life as normal. They may or may not receive extra help with how to handle it, using replacement food types in some cases or enriching foods to make up for lost nutritional values.

If the allergic response was severe, as with Anaphylaxis, they will be supplied with a prescription adrenaline pen to be used in case of emergency. If the allergy is mild to moderate they may simply be told to medicate with antihistamines (the sort of tablets most people associate with hay fever relief).

If the allergy is limited to a specific food stuff this may be easy to adapt to, excluding nuts is time consuming but well labelled on most packaging, if it is soy for example it may be harder. We have recipes and blogs to help with ideas and some shopping lists for key allergens to make buying supplies a little easier.

Life for a parent of a child with Food Allergies can be a different. Many children diagnosed with food allergies will continue under the care of the paediatrician for several years. Particularly with a diagnosis of a very young child the allergy can change as they grow. Many children diagnosed with a milk allergy, under the age of 5 for example, will outgrow it and go on to have no further problems. Some allergies stay for life and others will reduce or change. Visits to the Paediatrician may reduce in frequency but they are still available in between times for worries or concerns.

In addition to professional help you might want to seek some social support - it can be tough to change such a big aspect of your life in one go. Many social media sites have big support networks where you can post questions, queries or just read about other people going through the same thing as you. Never substitute these boards for medical advice though! Check out our page Social Support for further links.